1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an image display method, and a communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a TV conference as an example of a transmission system for holding a TV conference among a plurality of terminal devices via a communication network such as the Internet. In such a TV conference system, image data and voice sound data, which are collected during a TV conference at one terminal device, are sent to another terminal device. The other terminal device receives the image data and the voice sound data, and displays images on a display, etc., and outputs voice sound from a speaker. Accordingly, a TV conference can be held between these terminal devices.
However, the delay in data passing through the Internet is not always constant. Therefore, there is no guarantee that a constantly stable reception band is secured. Accordingly, the band, which can be used for communicating image data and voice sound data that are sent and received in a TV conference, is always changing. In the terminal devices, a media control technology is adopted for the purpose of guaranteeing smooth conversations even in an unstable reception band. In the media control technology, when the reception band decreases, smooth conversations are prioritized, and therefore image data having low resolution is received by the terminal device. When the reception band further decreases, the voice sound data is prioritized, therefore the terminal device implements control such that image data is not received at all.
When the terminal device cannot receive image data anymore according to the media control technology, the user may not be able to distinguish this case from a case where the image data cannot be received because transmission of image data has been interrupted at the sending terminal side. As a measure for such inconveniences, a technology for reporting the reason why image data cannot be received to the user of the receiving terminal side, is proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 discloses a transmission system having the following features. Specifically, when the relaying of image data to a receiving terminal is interrupted due to the decrease of the reception band, the receiving terminal displays a message saying that image data will not be received or that only voice sound data will be received.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-55403